Creative Ways to Keep Your Bathroom Well Lit

Adequate lighting does a lot to improve the overall look of a room. For a room as limited in size as a bathroom, adequate lighting becomes even more crucial. Bad lighting can totally dull the area, making it look closed in and claustrophobic; good lighting shows off its best angles. So how do you adequately light up your comfort space?

Home renovators tend to spend too much of their time decorating the space that they overlook the importance of proper lighting. No matter how good looking your bathroom space is, if the angles are not softened and the corners are poorly lit, your design mission crumbles down to a failure.

Fortunately, this is a perfectly avoidable error. To ensure that your bathroom space stays well lighted throughout the day, try these great tips you can incorporate into your own design plan. Read on to learn about some of the most creative ways to brighten up your bath space.

Fringe the Mirror with Lights

While ambient light can be a tad dramatic, it’s not practical for performing common grooming tasks. Doing your makeup with low lighting can be extra challenging, if not frustrating. It can also make you look dull and tired by showing the subtle shadows on your face that are normally softened by natural light.

By adding fringe lighting to the side of your vanity, perhaps some sconces to the sides, or maybe vertical bath bars, you can add a little bit of decent illumination to help you see more adequately and make your bathroom look more lively.

Mimic Natural Light

Your bathroom is where most of your grooming and personal pampering activities take place, and as much as possible, you’d want to be your best self. Unfortunately, poor lighting can sabotage your own efforts to look good.

Too much light can drown out colors, tempting you to add more makeup than is necessary. Not only that, it can trick you into overlooking signs of skin problems that may need attention. On the other hand, poorly lit rooms that are darker than daylight intensity can also appear grave and gloomy, something that can be depressing to wake up to every day.

The best way to avoid these little misfortunes is to model your bath lights to natural daylight. Go for white or clear shades when choosing fixtures, and use bulbs, preferably incandescent, LED, or CFL. The color temperature of the bulb must be within the range of 2,700K and 3,000K, which is the closest it can get to mimic natural outdoor light.

Create Ambience with Infrared Lamps and LED Lights

The shower area does not need to bathe in light. A cooler tone is perfect for a more relaxing atmosphere.

Vapor from the shower is also another thing to consider. For this, you may look into mounted-heat-lamp options. Additionally, LED strips behind your toilet compartment or lining the tub and cabinets work great to create sufficient ambient light at night without being harsh to your sight.

Consider a Dimmer

While bright bathrooms are preferable for the activities of the day, they can be blinding when you’re taking a quick trip to the loo at night. Consider installing a dimmer to tone down intense white light when you need to.

A dimmer light lets you adjust the light intensity to suit your needs and your mood. This is great for when you feel like indulging in a romantic, self-pampering night with a glass of wine and a tub full of roses while the whole atmosphere baths in soft, mellow light.

Install Motion-Sensing Switches

One of the most energy-wasting habits among households is leaving the lights on. When you’re running late for work in the morning, turning the bath lights off is probably the least of your priorities. Fortunately, this is also one of the easiest energy-wasting habits to fix.

One effective way to efficiently use electricity is to install motion-detecting switches that automatically turn off when no one is using the room. This energy-saving tool is great for guest rooms, powder rooms, or homes with little children.

Bottom Line

When it comes to bathroom lighting, intense does not always mean adequate. You have to work around your design and consider the existing conditions of your space before you can work on perfection. Explore these tips to get a good idea of where to start on your renovation project.